This is the Jamming Modulated Unimorph Hexapod (a.k.a.,
JHEX) — a prototype soft robot that's based on the coffee grounds
and balloon system developed by iRobot, Cornell University, and
the University of Chicago. The basic idea behind the whole jamming
thing is that by changing the pressure inside a flexible container
filled with a granulated material, you can make the particles of the
material either flow around each other or "jam" together, causing
the container to transition between softness and rigidity. JHEX can
walk by switching its legs between these soft and rigid states, or it
can go from completely rigid to completely soft. We've been seeing
all of these soft robots recently thanks in large part to DARPA and
their ChemBots program.

The goal of the Chemical Robots (ChemBots) program is to
create a new class of soft, flexible, meso-scale mobile objects that
can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their
dimensions and perform tasks once entry is gained. The program
seeks to develop a ChemBot that can perform several operations in
sequence. It should travel a specified distance and traverse an
arbitrarily shaped opening much smaller than the largest
characteristic of the robot itself. Once through the opening, it will
reconstitute its size, shape, and functionality, and travel again to
perform a task using an embedded payload.

Just about all of the Chembot prototypes that we've seen so
far have been tethered to a power source (like compressed air)
which means that you've got a way to disable these things if they
start oozing (or jamming) towards you. Getting power sources and
payloads onboard the robots themselves isn't going to be easy, but
based on the creativity and progress that
we've seen so far, it looks like DARPA
will get what it wants, and we'll have
something new to feel vaguely
uncomfortable about.

AVA MAKING ROUNDS

One telepresent/iPad bot has been built for Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto to assist Dr. Mirek
Otremba and the rest of the staff. iRobot has already teamed up with In Touch Health — a
robotics company that specializes in medical conferencing by remote — so we expect that there
will soon be an AVA appearing at a health care facility near you. While winsome-looking, beeping,
and scurrying robots that interface with your computer are already on the market, iRobot’s AVA
will put an iPad face and brain on the droid’s navigational skills, microphones, speakers, lasers, and
senors. Acting as a doctor’s consultant or assistant is a key early focus for AVA.

ROBO THERAPY WORKING?

A team from the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome,
headed by Dr. Giovanni Morone, recently completed a
trial study to see if those who have a stroke can benefit
from robot-assisted therapy. The study took two years
and consisted of 48 nonambulant patients who became
involved after 20 days from the time of the strokes. They
found that using the robotic assistance helped those that had high motor impairment. If
you would like to study their findings, it was published in Stroke: Journal of the American
Heart Association and can be found at http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early
/2011/12/15/STROKEAHA.111.638148.abstract.